Quinn heads Philadelphia Section PGA contingent following opening round of Senior PGA Professional Championship

    Dave Quinn, playing out of Laurel Creek Country Club, headed the Philadelphia Section PGA contingent as he landed among the group tied for 16^th place at 2-under par following the opening round of the 32^nd Senior PGA Professional Championship, supported by The Golf Channel and John Deere, Thursday at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

   The 54-year-old Quinn rallied with four birdies on the incoming nine at the par-72 Wanamaker Course to post a 70 that had him near the top of the leaderboard. Quinn will get a shot at the par-71 Ryder Course in Friday’s second round. There’s a cut following Friday’s second round and another following Saturday’s third round.

   The top 35 finishers in the Senior PGA Professional Championship earn a ticket to next May’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, which will be held at Southern Hills Country Club, a classic layout in Tulsa, Okla. The Senior PGA Championship is a PGA Tour Champions major championship.

   Quinn finished a shot out of a playoff for this year’s Senior PGA Championship at last year’s Senior PGA Professional Championship, which was held at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas. This year’s Senior PGA Championship, scheduled to be held at the Harbor Shores Resort in Benton Harbor, Mich. was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

   Quinn started a little slowly, making bogeys at the first and eighth holes to turn for home at 2-over. But Quinn rattled off birdies at the 11^th, 13^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to climb up the leaderboard.

   Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb landed in the large group-p tied for 27^th place at 1-under after carding a 70 at the Ryder Course. McNabb lost in a playoff to John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship in August at Concord Country Club.

   The 54-year-old McNabb earned a trip to the Senior PGA Championship in 2017. That was the same year he lost in a playoff to former PGA Tour performer Omar Uresti in the PGA Professional Championship at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon, earning a trip to the PGA Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

   McNabb was steady in Thursday’s opening round. He bounced back from a bogey at the fifth hole with a birdie at the seventh to make the turn at even-par. A bogey at the 12^th hole dropped McNabb to 1-over, but he made birdies at the 13^th and 17^th on his way in to get it into red figures.

   Four players from the Philadelphia Section, headed by Pillar, the reigning two-time winner of the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship, landed in the group tied for 127^th place at 3-over. All four players carded a 75 at the Wanamaker Club.

   Rounding out the foursome at 3-over from the Philadelphia Section were Merion Golf Club instructor Terry Hertzog, John Allen, playing out of the Huntingdon Valley Country Club pro shop, and Radnor Valley Country Club head pro George Forster. At 64 years young, Forster is a regular at the Senior PGA Professional Championship, having qualified for this event nearly every year since he became eligible at 50.

   Brian Kelly of Bucknell Golf Club and Terry Hatch of Royal Oaks Golf Course each carded an 8-over 80 at the Wanamaker Course and were in the group tied for 232^nd place. Kelly finished in a tie for 22^nd place in last year’s Senior PGA Professional Championship at Barton Creek, but saw his chance to compete in the PGA Senior Championship at Harbor Shores wiped out by the pandemic.

   Rounding out the Philadelphia Section contingent was Hugo Mazzalupi of Regents’ Glen National Golf Club. Mazzalupi struggled to an 81 at the Wanamaker Course and was in the group tied for 250^th place.

   Dick Mast, 30 years removed from a three-win season on the developmental tour known in those days as the Hogan Tour, fired a 6-under 65 at the Ryder Course to grab the lead following the opening round. The guy is 69 and he bettered his age by four shots. Pretty impressive.

   Mast birdied the fourth hole and stumbled briefly with his lone bogey of the day at the fifth. Birdies at the sixth and seventh holes enabled him to make the turn at 2-under. Mast then went off on the incoming nine with three straight birdies at the 12^th, 13^th, and 14^th holes before adding one more birdie at the 17^th for a sparkling 4-under 31.

   A trio of players – Chad Sorenson, the 51-year-old head pro at Buena Vista Golf Course in Taft, Calif., Bob Sowards, the 52-year-old head of instruction at Kinsale Golf & Fitness Center in Powell, Ohio, and Jeffrey Schmid, a 52-year-old instructor at Brown Deer Golf Club in Coralville, Iowa – were tied for second at 5-under, a shot behind Mast.

   Sorenson and Sowards each carded a 67 at the par-72 Wanamaker Course layout while Sowards posted a 66 at the par-71 Ryder Course layout.

   A couple of other interesting names popped up on the list of scores from the PGA Club, led by Gene Fieger, an instructor at Club Pelican Bay in Naples, Fla. The 60-year-old Fieger, who dominated the Philadelphia Section as an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club in the 1990s, carded a 1-over 72 at the Ryder Course and is right on the projected cut line among the group tied for 70^th place.

   Fieger won the Senior PGA Professional Championship title in 2013.

   Pete Oakley, the top club pro in Delaware for years and a dominant player in the Philadelphia Section, matched his age with an even-par 71 at the Ryder Course and was among the group tied for 48^th place. Oakley stunned the golf world – well, the golf world outside the Philadelphia Section – when he won The Senior Open Championship in 2004 at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.

   Charlie Bolling, who played out of Gulph Mills Golf Club when he won the 1978 BMW Philadelphia Amateur, was also in that large group tied for 127^th place at 3-over. Bolling, who plays out of the pro shop at Salem Golf Club in North Salem, N.Y., carded a 74 at the Ryder Course.